Remembering Lane Staley 

A personal tribute to the deceased Alice in Chains frontman and the impact he left on a generation of musicians and their fans.

This was the time of MTV Unplugged. A time when these truly talented guys were happy to go live and acoustic for us...and they shone more brightly in our eyes for it. They were better live, better unplugged...so unlike many other bands, in their selfless ability to connect to their audience and give themselves freely to their music and to us. They played and sang their hearts out–every time. 

For me, there was nothing more unabashedly haunting than the vocals of Alice In Chains frontman, Lane Staley (often pairing with Jerry Cantrell to add to the effect). Something about the prowess and pain in his voice touched me in a place so deep that I couldn’t escape it. I could listen to AIC songs over and over and not grow tired of them. It was my new “Disintegration” (my favorite LP by The Cure). For, I too, was a dark child in a pale body. My dark blue eyes full of intensity and my soul full of pain from childhood into my twenties. Perhaps that was why I was so moved, so enveloped, by Staley’s voice. I understood.

Song’s like “Man in a Box”, “Rooster”, “I Stay Away” and “Heaven Beside You” that received mass airplay, sold millions of albums and earned the band six Grammy nominations. 

But Staley had a secret: he was addicted to heroin and he conceded into a darkness from which he could not escape, even after rehab. I remember watching this man, so full of potential and talent, fade away before the public eye. Witnessing a young man, going from being so vivacious and full of wicked retort to becoming gaunt and empty, was a difficult thing.

Staley’s later lyrics were filled with his desire for that life and pain to end (such as Sickman: “what’s the difference I’ll die in this sick world of mine”) and about his addiction (Junkhead: “you can’t understand a users mind go ahead and try with your books and degrees"). I thought then (and now) how amazing it was that despite how ill and out of his mind they say he was, he somehow retained the ability and desire to give to the world.

It is through this sort of artistry that the rest of the world learns. He was selfless in his attempts to tell us what he was going through so we would all know the pain and suffering he was inflicting upon himself. Perhaps it was his way of warning, ‘hey stay away from this shit unless you want to end up like me! Please listen’.

Being a poet,a writer and a performing artist, I can relate to his desire to just get it all outside of himself and give it away to the universe so it wasn’t eating him alive; so his brain wasn’t screaming in his ear and his soul was getting some release from inside his addiction. It pains me to listen to his later efforts and hear him pleading with himself to give up the fight. 

I remember how upset people were when Kurt Cobain’s death occurred, though it was Staley’s death in 2002 at age 34 (eerily—exactly eight years to the day of Cobain’s death) which I was personally more pissed-off and upset about. He was the one I connected with and found to be worth it: worth shedding some tears for and pondering why he allowed himself to fall into such a dark place. I have often wondered if it was Staley’s death that saved another popular rocker, Scott Weiland of STP (and more recently Velvet Revolver) from the same fate; it is reported he finally overcame his own heroin addiction in December of 2002.

Spending time really listening to Alice in Chains’ music and retracing the moments in time, as well as reminiscing on the past and my connection to that music made me realize [once again], that I am very lucky. I could have also fallen into a “sea of sorrow” if I weren’t such a strong person with a lot of conviction and self-control. I do not condone drug use (nor have I ever used) by any means, but I am at least educated enough on the topic to know what a scary and difficult place it can be.

I shed tears, for the loss of Lane Staley again, today, as I listened to that voice pouring its pain into my head, down into my soul. Getting pissed-off again at him for giving into addiction. But also grateful the world was ever so lucky to have been blessed by his talents at all. The anniversary of his death is April 5^th; it has only been seven years but it’s been seven years too long. He is apparently still on people’s mind; his presence still missed by many, including his fellow musicians who continue to pay tribute to him and consider him a great influence on themselves and rock-n-roll.

I hope you finally found the peace you were seeking throughout life, Lane.